Redefinition of Urban-Rural Boundaries Under Centralized Governance: Urban Ecological Movements in the Case of a Coastal Town, Ayvalık, Turkey

Abstract

This paper investigates the socio-ecological impacts of Turkey’s 2012 Metropolitan Law (No. 6360) by analyzing how it redefined urban–rural boundaries through the case of Ayvalık. The law expanded metropolitan jurisdictions to include rural areas, intensifying top-down governance and triggering land use transformations. Drawing on urban political ecology and planetary urbanisation, the study explores how environmental movements in Ayvalık resist these changes and advocate for participatory governance. Through ethnographic research and spatial analysis, it reveals the tensions between centralized state planning and local socio-ecological dynamics. The findings highlight Ayvalık as a metropolitan hinterland shaped by contested governance, contributing to debates on planning amid planetary crisis and the need for more inclusive, ecologically tailored governance frameworks.